Android Instant Apps at Thumbtack
Article Summary
Francis Kam from Thumbtack reveals how they partnered with Google pre-launch to build one of the first Android Instant Apps. The results? Instant app messages now equal their full installed app.
In 2017, Thumbtack worked directly with Google before the public SDK release to create an instant app for their Android customer app. They provided feedback on the SDK while building a nearly full-featured instant experience that lets users message service professionals without installing anything.
Key Takeaways
- Instant app messages grew to match installed app volume in months
- Slashed APK size from 7MB to 3.75MB through vector graphics and dependency removal
- Integrated Smart Lock for one-tap login across instant and installed experiences
- Required complete project restructure to share modules between instant and installed APKs
Thumbtack's instant app achieved feature parity with their installed app and drove equal messaging volume by eliminating installation friction.
About This Article
Thumbtack users couldn't respond to messages from service professionals through their instant app. The instant app needed to match what the installed Android app could do, but without requiring a download.
Thumbtack added Smart Lock for passwordless sign-in and broke their codebase into modular pieces. This let them share components between the instant app and the installed APK, using Google's instant app structure.
The instant app handled about the same volume of messages as the installed app. Removing the installation step worked. Users engaged with it just as much as they did with the full downloaded version.